Sir Robert Borden
'Sir Robert L. Borden '''was a British-Canadian lawyer and 8th Prime Minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. After retiring from public life, Sir Borden served as Chancellor of Queens University. Born and raised in the farming community of Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia where he was educated, Robert Borden worked with his father as a surveyor in Massachusetts for settlers from Nova Scotia. Robert was a professor for five years, teaching at private institutions in New Jersey, before in 1874 Borden traveled to Halifax to article at a local law firm. By August of 1878 he was called to the Nova Scotia Bar, placing first in the examinations. In 1880 he traveled to Kentville, Nova Scotia as a partner of lawyer John Chipman who inducted him into the Freemasons. In 1882 he was asked to join the Graham-Tupper Law Firm in Halifax, and by Autumn, 1889, Borden was Senior Partner of the firm following the departure of Wallace Graham and Charles Tupper. On 25, September, 1889, he married Laura Bond, the daughter of a hardware merchant, and in 1894 the pair bought a mansion and large property in Halifax. By 1893, Sir Borden became an important financial and political influence, arguing two successful cases against the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council before taking a place on the boards of the Bank of Nova Scotia and Crown Life Insurance Company. In 1896, he had become President of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, initiating and organizing the founding of the Canadian Bar Association in Montreal the same year. He very quickly became a wealthy, successful, and well-connected man with one of the largest legal practices in the Maritime Provinces. Leader of the Conservatives Member of Parliament Borden was elected to Parliament in the 1896 federal election as a Conservative, and in 1901 was selected by the caucus to succeed Sir Charles Tupper as leader of the party. Over the next decade he worked to reform the party and drafted the Halifax Platform, calling for reform of the Senate and civil service in addition to; a selective immigration policy, free rural mail delivery, government regulation of telegraphs, telephones, and railways and national ownership of telegraphs and telephones. In British Columbia his party advocated for stricter foreign workers policies, on behalf of young, low-skill, white, Canadian workers who faced wage depression caused by an influx of cheap Asian labour. While he lost the 1908 federal election, he was resurgent in 1911, successfully campaigning against Wilfrid Laurier's free trade agreement with the United States, winning the election on his proposed Halifax Platform, a revision of John A. MacDonald's National Policy, and appeals for loyalty to the British Empire. Prime Minister (1911-1920) First Term (1911-1916) World War I In the beginning of World War I, Borden transformed his government into a wartime administration, passing the ''War Measures Act in 1914, and promising approximately 500,000 soldiers to the British war effort. In his determination to keep his word, Borden enacted the ''Military Service Act, ''which created significant turmoil between the French and British Canadians. In an effort to establish a national identity, Borden instigated attempts to create a unified Canadian Army. While Minister Sam Hughes ensured troops received proper training, General Arthur Currie provided a sense of Canadian leadership for the military forces in Europe. The Canadians themselves proved their fighting force to be one of the best in the world, emerging victors at the Battles of Passchendaele, Ypres, Somme, and Vimy Ridge. His first term was ultimately successful, and before it's end he established the National Research Council of Canada in 1916. Second Term (1916-1920) Commonwealth of Nations Borden played a crucial role in establishing the Commonwealth and dividing the British Empire into equal states. He passed the Income War Tax Act of 1917, and demanded a separate seat from Britain at the Paris Peace Conference. Initially receiving opposition from the British and the U.S., the Commonwealth Nations eventually received the right to vote separately from British PM David Lloyd George, and Borden had succeeded in granting further autonomy to the dominions of Australia, Canada, India, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa with individual positions in the League of Nations. Borden acted as a diplomatic intermediary between the United States, Australia and New Zealand over mandates and territories, and attempted to negotiate for administration of Belize and other islands in the West Indies with British PM David Lloyd George but no conclusion was reached. Treaty of Versailles Borden ensured the Treaty of Versailles was ratified in Canadian Parliament, and in the following year was Knighted in the Queen's Counsel, and inducted into the Order of St. Michael and St. George, before being elevated to Knight Grand Cross. Post-War Government Bloody Sunday Following the war many soldier returned to high unemployment rates, a large immigrant diaspora, inflated housing rates, and poor working conditions. Soldiers and labourers were united by unions that incited protests throughout Winnipeg, and on 21, June, 30,000 assembled to demonstrate at Market Square, leading Mayor Charles Frederick Gray to deploy the Royal Northwest Mounted Police against the rowdy dissenters. The Canadian Army was deployed to prevent property destruction and prevent violence among the populace, however in the proceeding conflict, two were killed and thirty-five were injured. Prime Minister Borden received information that implicated Bolshevik agitators from the Soviet Union, and authorized the use of troops to put down the strike. Post-Second Term Borden would go on to represent Canada once more on the international stage when he attended the Washington Naval Conference in 1922 and signed the resulting arms reduction treaty on Canada's behalf. Post-Political Career and Retirement Borden served as Vice-President of The Champlain Society between 1923 and 1925 and as Chancellor of Queen's University in Kingston from 1924 until 1930. He was the Society's first Honorary President between 1925 and 1938. At the time of his death, Borden stood as president of two financial institutions: Barclays Bank of Canada and the Crown Life Insurance Company. Borden died on June 10, 1937, in Ottawa. Trivia *